*HEART* My mother is from Minnesota and I say hotdish all the time and everyone looks at me funny.

and now I want tuna hotdish. heh.

you are some hotdish, Connie

I sometimes like to eat that 'cheese' in a can that you squirt through the little nozzle, especially on those 'chicken' flavored crackers that don't have any chicken in them.

I have to go find some food (damn this forum).

-O-

I only eat organic, family-grown produce and meat from farms within five miles of my home.

Fondest Regards,
Mrigesh

Chicken in a Biscuit - Haven't had those little toxic squares in years! They were kind of tasty - greasy but tasty. Doesn't the chicken flavor come from feathers or toenails or something?

When I was a kid Ritz crackers were as fancy as we got around our house. Once we went to my aunt and uncle's for dinner and she had Chicken in a Biscuit. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I think the flavor is actually extracted from the chickens' souls. Hence the saltiness.

Sincerely Yours,
Lamont

Mmmm, chicken-soul crackers.

I think I need to eat a Twinkie soon, just to remember how creepy they really are. I don't think I can bring myself to try Spaghetti-O's again, the sauce is one of the most vile non-food just-pretend-it's-edible substances ever.

Santiago Sin Apellido (I think that's how I spell my name)

I think I need to eat a Twinkie or two, myself. Are we still talking about food? :)
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My latest junk snack are the bunny crackers made by Annie's. They're like goldfish crackers but are shaped like bunnies. It's impossible not to smile when you look at them. My favorite flavors are the sour cream and onion ones and the white cheddar. They go surprisingly well with a martini.

Damn this forum....

I'm helping my artist friend Richard this weekend with his open studio show/sale, and we stopped at the market to get ice. I needed cat food, so I went in too. Saw a sign in an aisle: 'snacks'. What do you suppose I bought? I spent the afternoon in between potential customers (not lots of sales but not bad, and tomorrow should be better) eating 'cheese' in a can with 'chicken' crackers. Chicken in a biscuit actually does have 'powdered cooked chicken' on the ingredient list, next to last before corn starch (so it probably is chicken feet). The squirty cheese which used to be labled 'pasteurized processed cheese food' now reads 'pasteurized cheese snack', which does sound more appealing. And apparently it's an excellent source of calcium. The can says so (I wouldn't have thought it an 'excellent' source of anything, considering the additional foo). I know I've had knock-off generic brands of the chicken crackers which had no chicken (not sure if the lack of chicken feet is good or bad when we get to this level of 'food').

I couldn't bring myself to look for Twinkies after my previous selections. Awfully scrummy little heinous snacks they were though (in a really wierdly satisfying salty fatty way-and oddly, there's more sugar in those chicken things than salt).

Food is beginning to confuse me. Damn this forum.

Senorita Lupita Bonita

Chicken feet aren't really that bad, especially if they're fried...

I was in Mexico years ago, in this little more-village-than-town sort of place, and there was a little food booth beside the road (we were probably stopping for beer). They had a few sundry things, but placed out front and center like it was a very special offering was a plate of chicken feet. It was one of many interesting moments on that trip.

-O-

I've never really had a thing about crackers. Take 'em or leave 'em is my motto. Now chips are another story....... and a very, very bad one at that. Why I don't weigh 700 lbs is one of the oddest mysteries of life.

There was a kid named Fred at my grade school who brought chicken feet for lunch on a regular basis. I think they were boiled though. Fred was kind of a loner.

O - Did you eat the feet?

No one has asked for my Spam Hotdish recipe yet. Made a great carrot/cranberry salad yesterday.

K

No, we didn't get any feet; I did want to take a picture, but local customs prevail and I let those moments pass if I wasn't sure (if you want to pretend you have a soul [I'm skeptical], you don't go deep into Mexico wildly snapping pictures at every turn, no matter how cool you know they would be).

I'm feeling bad for Fred, though not surprised at the loner status.

K, I'll ask for your recipe if it will make you feel better, but I almost never make 'hotdish' thingies and don't think I've ever personally purchased Spam (eaten it, just never bought it).

-O-

My Gmail account has a spam filter that has been quite successfully shunting the unwanted offers for sex and stock tips to a separate folder. Being Google there is of course a line of context-sensitive advertising and it's always a link to a spam recipe. Maybe I'll come across your hotdish there?

And speaking of stock tips...

Regarding chicken feet: I think I'd buy them by the pound if I could find a place where I wouldn't be too embarrassed to ask for them. As I understand it--as transmitted by my dear Grandmama-- they are an decent source of gelatin in poultry stocks. Last winter I managed to make an INCREDIBLE chicken stock that gelled so well the resulting soups were so rich you'd swear they contained a pound of butter despite nearly no added fat or oil. I believe I could do that again with a good bunch of chicken feet. People! It's ALL about the connective tissue!! Collagen is your friend and I'm not just talking about the sensuous, pouty lip injections!

Faithfully Yours,
Levitra Bonaire

Fred wasn't a bad kid. Lost his Mom. Dad was raising a whole flock of boys by himself. Poverty. School lunches were bound to be low on the priority list.

Haven't been to Mexico in years. I don't think we have too much longer before it comes to us. Not a bad thing necessarily....

I'll keep the Spam dish to myself - for now.

Yes, I believe chick feet would be OK in stock. Would they have all that much flavor though? I think I used necks when I made stock in the past. Those have lots of connective tissue right? After all, what holds a neck together or am I thinking of something else? Chicken necks are deceptively long. Maybe they're baby swan necks. I wonder if the human neck looks long once the head is removed?

So is there a good recipe for stock that doesn't use a ton of leeks or what can I substitute for leeks? Too expensive when you figure you throw at least half of them away.

At first I read your "pouty lip injections" as "poultry lip injections". I guess the human brain is odd in answer to Orrin's other question.

Jake Gyllenhaal

I get regular injections of poultry lips. At my age it's hard work to keep my stunning good looks.

Did anyone else see the old 'Ab Fab' episode where Edwina got collagen lip injections and ended up with a sort of duck bill?

-O-

I loved that episode, but then I think I loved them all--the first few seasons at least.

The purpose of the feet for stock is really to add unctiousness rather than flavor. The meat and bones shuould add plenty of flavor. I'd never use leeks in stock, plain old onions are fine by me along with a carrot or two, some celery including the leaves.

In proportion to the whole body size, the human neck is nowhere near as long as a chicken's once the head is removed but makes a lousy stock. However, it's perfectly suited for clapping into the stocks because it's smaller than the head which can't slip through the hole and keeps the prisoner more or less immobilized. Chickens escape from the stocks as soon as the warden's back is turned.

Is Spam Hotdish like the Spam w/Kim Chee popular in the islands? (I'm from Guam.) The unctuousness of spam enfolded within the firepower of the red-hot fermented cabbage & garlic... yumm...

Ms. Angelina

here's one kind:
SPAM HOT DISH

3 c. thinly sliced potatoes
1 can Spam, sliced thin
1/2 lb. American cheese, sliced
1 tsp. onion flakes
1 can mushroom soup
1 1/2 c. milk

Place layer of potatoes in greased casserole or 8x12 inch pan. Cover with Spam. Top with cheese. Sprinkle with half of onion flakes; spoon on mushroom soup. Repeat. Last, pour milk over casserole. Bake in 350 degree oven until potatoes are done. 6 servings.

Ms Angelina,

I think our spam hotdishes are not as sophisticated as what you are used to. Judy's is very similar to mine. I couldn't eat it every day, but once every 10 years or so is wonderful.

Rita Hayward

I can honestly say, I've never in my entire life eaten Spam. Recently, a few other people I know have come out of the closet, as it were, about eating Spam. It's been rather shocking.

If it helps, I've never actually purchased the stuff. For some reason, people give it to me. A couple of years ago a cousin gave me a 6 pak as a Christmas gift. I loved it.

Was this gift of spam put in your stocking?